How to Have Fun with Snakes!

Snakes don’t frighten my son. This may be because my husband and I have made great effort not to let the unexpected sight of snakes startle him. We want him to have a fascination with nature and not immediately kill what he presumes is dangerous. That said, we also tell him if he ever sees a snake to immediately tell Mommy or Daddy and by no means should he touch it or get near it. (Nothing infuriates me more than to see someone kill a snake just because it’s a snake. If it’s a water moccasin in a swimming pool…then that’s different.)

For the record, this isn't the snakey part of the creek

The other day at the park Truman and I were walking by the grassy side of the creek where you cannot see the bottom. I’m sure it’s not that deep, just murky. He wanted to look at the fish. There are some large ones over there. As we walked, Truman calmly said, “Mommy, what kind of snake is that?” I looked over and saw just four feet from us a gunmetal-colored snake. I’m not sure how big he would have been had he been unraveled and laid out, but his circumference was about that of my upper arm (which is bigger than it used to be or should be, I might add). I screamed, grabbed my son’s arm, and ran with him in tow. (So much for teaching through example.)

We walked (or ran) to the less frightening side of the creek, the side near the walkway just opposite from where we saw the big snake. I didn’t see the big guy, but Truman shouted, “Look Mommy! More snakes.” In the water, slithering on top as if skating on ice, was an 18-inch-long reddish snake. We watched as he wiggled from one end of the creek to the other and back again. He was joined by two more just like him. It fascinated my son…and, me too.

Springy Spiral Snake eating super scrumptious grilled cheese sandwich.

My camera-phone just couldn’t capture the snakes. I wanted to show Rick what Truman and I had found and maybe see if he could identify them. So instead we came home and (this was Truman’s idea) drew pictures of the snakes we saw. And then we started making up others to color. We even make a “snake book.” And then I found this site – DLTK Kids Crafts for Kids – and we did some of the snake activities for kids.

Springy Spiral Snake handler.

They have several different age-appropriate ones to choose from. Our favorite was this Springy Spiral Snake Craft. By the way… Springy Spiral Snake isn’t a big fan of super scrumptious grilled cheese sandwiches.

Photos, JWJourney